Nationwide — Open Hearts Large Desires (OHBD) began as a result of somewhat lady named Leyla Angelidis dreamed of a world the place youngsters from her start nation of Ethiopia may get entry to plenty of lovely books, identical to she had residing in the USA. Not too long ago, one of many books that now-teenage Leyla Angelidis co-authored together with her mom, Ellenore Angelidis — Stunning Desires, illustrated by Nahosenay Negussie — has been nominated for inclusion on the Worldwide Board on Books for Younger Folks (IBBY) 2026 Honour Listing of excellent books for younger folks globally.
Stunning Desires, which was nominated for “Greatest Illustration,” is a part of the OHBD Fantastic Artwork collection, that includes high quality artists from Ethiopia and different elements of the world. The ebook’s message is that little women can dream about turning into something they need to be—a dream that Leyla Angelidis holds for youngsters in every single place.
As Leyla Angelidis says, “I’m thrilled that extra youngsters in Ethiopia are attending to take pleasure in high quality books with attractive artwork like Nahosenay’s and extra youngsters world wide are attending to studying about Ethiopia.”
As IBBY’s web site relates, “Essential issues in deciding on the Honour Listing titles are that the books are consultant of the perfect in kids’s literature from the nation and that the books are appropriate for publication all through the world. The choice offers perception into the various cultural, political and social settings by which kids stay and develop.” The books shall be circulated at worldwide exhibitions and housed in a number of main cities. That is solely the second time that Ethiopia has been included on this listing, solely the second time 4 of the 5 official Ethiopian languages, and the primary time for the official language, Afar Af, are represented.
IBBY Ethiopia additionally nominated ten different titles to the IBBY’s 2026 Honour Listing, all obtainable in bilingual additions that characteristic official Ethiopian languages, together with:
Watch, Pay attention, and Study (Amharic)Arms (Tigrinya)White-Winged Flufftails (Afaan Oromo)The Language of Dance (Somali)The Nice Rift Valley Lakes (Afar Af)Little Crimson Cape (Amharic)When Was I Born? (Tigrinya)Once I was a Little one in Ethiopia (Afaan Oromo)The Little Snail (Somali)The Happiest Herder within the Land (Afar Af)
Moreover in 2025, two OHBD/Prepared Set Go books acquired honors on the thirtieth Worldwide Gourmand Awards in Portugal (for “Better of the Yr 2024”). The True Story of Teff was listed as First in “Meals Books for Kids/Africa” and Fourth in “Bread Books.” The Artwork of Cooking was First in “Fund Elevating,” Second in each “Illustrations/Books” and “Bilingual with English,” and Fourth in “African Books.” Based in 1995, the Gourmand Awards are chosen annually from over 100,000 publications from 230 nations and areas world wide. The awards have been in comparison with the Oscars for movie.
OHBD Founder and Government Director Ellenore Angelidis notes, “We’re thrilled to have extra writers, illustrators, translators, and a brand new writer represented amongst these honored titles. We work to characterize a spread of tales, artwork kinds, and fiction and nonfiction books. We additionally embody themes of conservation, peace, and inclusion.”
IBBY Ethiopia consultant Yoseph Ayelew shares, “I can’t stress sufficient how motivating these awards are for the studying promoters inside Ethiopia, who’ve restricted alternative to share with and be taught from the worldwide neighborhood. We are going to maintain one other award ceremony in Ethiopia in February 2026 to honor a broader section of these concerned in creating high quality books as IBBY Ethiopia continues to develop their affect and attain, one step at a time.”
OHBD is a Seattle-based, not-for-profit group that’s devoted to growing literacy, inclusion, innovation readiness, and management abilities in Ethiopia and past. Ethiopia is Africa’s second-most populous nation, however tens of tens of millions of individuals there are with out literacy abilities, and there’s a lack of enough high quality, culturally related kids’s books within the native languages. The group sponsored the launch of IBBY Ethiopia as a brand new Nationwide Part of IBBY, becoming a member of in July 2023.
IBBY Ethiopia, the Ethiopian Nationwide Part, is targeted on growing entry to high quality books and making a love of studying in Ethiopia. IBBY Ethiopia can be selling a variety of tales, cultures and languages, 70-90 distinctive ones estimated, from throughout this huge nation.
The total collection of OHBD titles could be discovered at https://ohbd-rsgbooks.com/
Nearly 1,200 of the titles are on OverDrive and at libraries and colleges across the globe: https://openheartsbigdreams.org/affect/global-libraries/
For additional data:
• IBBY Ethiopia: www.ibby.org/ibby-worldwide/ibby-sections/ethiopia• IBBY Honour Listing: www.ibby.org/awards-activities/awards/ibby-honour-list/
For press inquiries, contact IBBY Ethiopia: Yoseph Ayalew / telephone: +251-965-696-969 / +251-911-227-650
